Review: Rolling in the Void

Void is an independently-developed, rolling-release Linux distribution with a number of interesting characteristics, such as its own package management system (called XBPS), a custom init system (runit), integration of LibreSSL instead of OpenSSL in the base operating system, and support for several popular ARM-based devices as well as x86 images. The operating system is available in several editions, including Cinnamon, Enlightenment, LXDE, LXQt, MATE and Xfce. New Void users will also be able to choose whether to run the distribution with the GNU C Library or musl libc library. I opted to download the Xfce edition running on the GNU C Library for 64-bit machines; the ISO was 693MB in size.
Booting from the Void media brought up the Xfce 4.12 desktop environment. The desktop is presented with a panel at the top of the screen which holds the application menu and system tray. At the bottom of the display is a dock where we can quick-launch applications. The desktop has a few icons for launching the Thunar file manager. If Void detects any disk partitions these will also be listed on the desktop for easy access. The theme is mostly grey and relatively plain.

Slax is a Nifty Linux Distribution That Works from USB

Slax is a portable Linux distribution that runs from USB, it aims to create a modular, modern and lightweight Linux distribution which can be carried anywhere in a USB stick. It’s also Debian-based, which allows you as a user to access tons of packages provided by Debian using the apt command.
Slax 9.6 was released last November. So we downloaded the latest release and tried it, our experience with it was great so far, see our review below for a detailed tour in Slax.